Emission Nebula NGC 3576

 

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About this Image

This area seen here in RGB and in H-alpha light is dramatic by it's unique shape. Powerful winds from the nebula's embedded, young, massive stars shape the looping filaments. The obscuring dust is forming a 3-dimensional cave below the center of this image.

But the glow also silhouettes dense clouds of dust and gas. The two condensing dark clouds near the top of the picture offer potential sites for the formation of new stars. NGC 3576 itself is about 100 light-years across and 9,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina, apparently not far from the famous Eta Carinae Nebula.

Find a publication using this image about massive star formation in NGC3576 here.


Technical Details
Optics

20 " Keller cassegrain in corrected secondary focus at f/9

Mount Liebscher GEM
Camera SBIG STL-11000M at -20C, 8-pos STL filter wheel
Filters Baader RGB, H-alpha, (7 nm)
Date Apr 27, 2008.
Location IAS/Hakos Namibia
Sky Conditions dark skies, raw FWHM 1.5-1.8" temperature 10 C,
Exposure R:G:B = 30:30:30 minutes (15-minute sub-exposures);
S2:Ha:O-III = 120:240:120 min (60 minute sub-exposures); S2, O3 not yet used
all 1x1.
Programs used Maxim DL 4.5;
CCDStack
Photoshop CS3